In at least partial response to the spiraling costs of health care, a renewed emphasis has been placed on preventive medicine and wellness. Wellness programs in increasing numbers are being offered by government and private entities. This emphasis has resulted not only in a need for a means of measuring and monitoring wellness, but also for ways to encourage and counsel individuals to adopt healthy behaviors.
While a tremendous amount of high quality medical evidence has been published, it is time consuming and costly to access this information and to review it on a regular basis. Even if an individual has access to specialized medical computer resources, it takes considerable knowledge, time, and effort to interpret the published medical findings. This difficulty is particularly the case where findings in one medical publication need to be interpreted in light of another publication, or are contrary to previously published findings.
In addition, if individuals want to improve their wellness level, it is not always readily clear what the options are and which one or more are best for a specific person in their specific situation. Even if an appropriate plan is chosen, without constructive feedback as to the results of one's efforts, it is difficult for that person to remain motivated.
Health risk assessments are being used with increasing frequency as a means to assess an individual's personal health habits and risk factors; estimate the individual's future risk of death, illness, or otherwise reduced quality of life, and provide counseling as to means of reducing this risk. Generally these assessments take the form of mortality risk estimates and counseling phrases based upon relative risk. An example of such a phrase is, "if you adhere to an exercise program as prescribed by your doctor, your relative risk of dying from heart disease over your lifetime will be 0.43 with a 95% confidence interval of 0.41-0.455, and you will extend your useful life expectancy by 0.1 years." Such a statement is too abstract and/or remote in time for most people to respond to it effectively. To tell someone that they may lower their risk of dying from a disease in the coming year from 0.00016 to 0.00014 per year has even less relevance. Similarly, risk may be assessed in either a percent or "one in one thousand" format. Again, this assessment does not provide the level of information needed for an individual to be properly motivated toward implementing healthier behaviors. Further, being advised of the probability as to when one may die at a period of time in the remote future has little relevance to a younger person.
Other health risk assessment programs provide the user with a written evaluation based upon their answers to a questionnaire. This evaluation may include a health risk age, a list of recommendations, and the health risk age that could apply if the user follows the recommendations for a specified period of time. In these programs the user has little or no input in determining the recommendations. Most individuals will not follow such a list of recommendations because they do not take into account the individual's inclinations. In addition, the user has no way of determining the relative physiological effect of each item within the list of recommendations; thus, if they do not wish to incorporate the entire list of recommendations, they do not have the information needed to make an informed decision as to which item(s) to include.
The following non-interactive medical systems are generally directed toward diagnostic purposes, and are for use by medical professionals. These systems do not provide motivational factors for a patient to change to a healthier life style.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,130,881 to Haessler et al. discloses a medical diagnostic tool for health care professionals comprising a means for automated medical history taking. Haessler discloses the use of automated logic, wherein the questions asked are dependent on the patient's responses to prior questions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,122 to Autschuler et al. discloses an interactive statistical system and method for predicting expert decisions. In practice, this system analyzes several input responses, by utilizing statistical analysis and preprogrammed expert opinions, to determine a diagnosis.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,374 to Roizen et al. discloses a device which is used to record patient history. Answers to a set of medical questions are used by the device to select medical or pre-operative tests.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,235,510 to Umata et al. discloses a picture archiving communication system that records and stores various digital image data. In use, a patient is examined by way of a medical imaging device. The image is digitized and thereafter stored in a database with other relevant patient attributes. At a later time, medical personnel retrieve the image and other attributes at a remote workstation.
A need exists for an interactive system that supplies users with an easily understandable measurement of their wellness, the know how to improve their wellness, a means of customizing a program for improving their wellness, and a means to monitor their progress to that end. This measurement and counseling must take place in a manner that motivates individuals to adopt healthy lifestyles without being so abstract that encouragement and monitoring are difficult. Such a system must be flexible, such that it can continue to be a useful tool for users as they change their lifestyle, proceed through their life cycle and have voluntary and involuntary life changes.